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Thallium, Blood

Thallium salts are used as insecticides and rodenticides, as a tracer (201Tl)
in myocardial imaging, and in manufacturing of low temperature thermometers,
photoelectric cells, dye pigments, and certain cement. In the United States,
the industrial atmospheric time-weighted average (TWA) is 0.1 mg/m3.

Many thallium compounds are readily absorbed by the digestive tract, skin,
and lungs. Fatal and nonfatal thallium poisonings stem from medicinal,
cosmetic, industrial, and pesticide application. Symptoms of intoxication
include colic, nausea, vomiting, tremors, albuminuria, sensory changes,
polyneuritis, speech impairment, weakness, ataxia, tachycardia, arrhythmia,
paralysis, and convulsions. Alopecia may occur after 1 to 3 weeks. The
lethal adult dose is about 8 to 15 mg/kg of soluble thallium salt.
Although Prussian blue hastens excretion, no single chelating agent has been
shown to be an especially effective treatment.

The half-life is 2 to 4 days.

Method

Inductively-coupled plasma/mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

An argon plasma at 6,000 to 10,000 °K destroys the organic matter in the
sample and ionizes the metals. The resulting metallic ions are detected and
quantitated in the mass spectrometer using an internal standard. Results are
reported in μg/L.